It can be overwhelming, especially at the onset, and you may find yourself having to give up. However, setting fitness and diet goals can help you stay on course. A well-structured goal can give you that extra push needed to keep going even when you lack the motivation or inspiration.
What is goal setting?
A goal defines the results you are trying to achieve, and setting goals can be a powerful way to help you achieve what you want in life.
Setting goals is all about identifying what you want to have or improve on, drawing up actionable steps on how to achieve that, and then focusing on those steps to get the desired result.
The importance of setting goals
Setting fitness goals is important for your fitness journey. With goals, that which seems impossible starts looking possible. Goals keep you on your toes and push you through discomfort and challenges until you achieve your aim. Setting goals is important in every aspect of life, rather it by your career, academics, personal growth, or body fitness. Setting fitness goals is a way to hold yourself accountable.
The importance of setting goals includes:
Goals serve as a measuring stick, i.e. for measuring progress
Goals offer motivation and provide purpose
Goals help you define success 
They hold you accountable
They help inform your action, i.e., they help you determine the next thing you need to do
Goals help you set your priority
Your goals help you communicate your purpose to others
Setting goals make it easier to recognize progress
Goals can boost your morale
Tips for setting effective fitness goals
Have you gotten to the point where you want to make changes to certain life habits that affect your body fitness? Setting fitness goals is one effective way to set yourself up for success and get motivation. Let's get started with tips for setting practical fitness goals!
Don't procrastinate
You might be tempted to shift your goal setting to a stipulated time in the future, but that is not necessary. It would be best if you started now. Setting goals is not an arduous task, and you don't require many resources to get started. All you need is a notepad and anything for writing or documenting them. 
Define your goal
The next step in setting an effective fitness goal is to define your goal. Your goal must not be the same as your friend's goal. Your goal should be unique to your needs. Your goal should be "what you want". 
Set SMART goals
This is the most important part of fitness goal setting. Many people miss out on this aspect and end up setting fitness goals that are not relevant, achievable, or measurable. You must be smart about setting your fitness goals. SMART here is used as an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Let's go through each of these.
Specific goals: Specificity means a clear definition of what you want to achieve. If you set a fitness goal that simply says, "I want to get fit", that is a very broad and ambiguous goal. It doesn't pass as a practical goal because it is not specific. What exactly does 'fit' mean for you? That is what you have to describe. You have to be detailed by describing the 'who', 'what', 'where', 'how', and 'why'.
Measurable goals: You should set goals that you can track and measure. This will help you know when you are close to achieving your goals and motivate you to push harder to achieve the set goal. For instance, saying you want to perform "30 pushups" is a good goal because here, you can measure your progress using the number of pushups you can do in a row.
Achievable goals: While your fitness goal is meant to challenge you, it should also be achievable and realistic. It is great to set big goals for yourself but it is not practical to set a goal that says, "I want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row within two weeks", when you may not be able to do 10 pushups in a row when starting off. Breaking that big goal into smaller achievable bits will help your fitness journey.